


Too Aro Ace For This

by secretagentspydetectiveninja



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aromantic Character, Aromanticism, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Internalized Acephobia, Multi, a HECK of a lot of it, and the ships are too messy to bother tagging but the love square's in it, honestly it's mostly about alix's watch tbh, it gets kinda depressing towards the end but i promise it has a happy ending, miraculace, well... eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-22 13:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9608702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentspydetectiveninja/pseuds/secretagentspydetectiveninja
Summary: Being a 15 year old is never easy for anyone, especially when your rich family has so many expectations for you to live up to when all you want to do is be yourself. But on top of that, to realize you're never able to care about anyone the way you're supposed to, no matter how hard you try? Even worse.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Aro ace = aromantic asexual, aka not feeling romantic or sexual attraction. Shouldn't be too difficult to figure out which character this applies to, even if said character hasn't yet figured it out herself ;)
> 
> UPDATE: Hmm I'm looking back on this old thing and it's uh... very messy. And unintentionally hilarious sometimes. And half of it is bizarrely far-fetched. Okay much of this fic was based off stuff that has really happened either to me or someone I know but the rest is ridiculous. I'm not sure how much sleep I had and I don't want to know. Like seriously... I can't read past like chapter 7. If you want a not-totally-awful fic where Alix is aro ace then just read Misadventures 'cause I did a heck of a better job there, I'm pretty sure.
> 
> ANOTHER UPDATE: In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't realize I'm aro too until way after writing this fic, I mean... how did I not realize it at the time?? I did think to myself "ah yes this is all very Relatable" and yet I didn't put two and two together somehow. Wow. Anyways, I'd still just recommend reading Misadventures instead, it hits a lot of the same plot points except better. This fic was more just an outpouring of all the ace angst in my brain at the time, I kinda just needed to get it out of my system even if it wasn't very good. Sorry, haha.

It was a normal Friday afternoon, and the school library was supposed to be where the students were working quietly until it was time to go home, but today it was far noisier. Kim had drank one too many cans of Red Bull and used his abundance of energy to start a class arm-wrestling contest. So far his only real competition had been from Ivan and Marinette, of all people - who had known she would be so strong? - but he had managed to beat them both, and he was feeling confident he would win.

"Hey Alix, you're up next!" he called to her.

Alix normally would have been perfectly happy to take part in some stupid challenge of Kim's like this, it was better than doing work anyway. But she was in a bad mood today, thinking about what she had to do after school. She was being made to go to one of her father's stupid posh event things at the museum. When she was younger she didn't mind so much, just going and messing around all the time by sock-sliding down the corridors with Jalil or mixing together all the available drinks to make the worst-tasting concoction she could and tricking people into drinking it, but this time she was going to be under close watch. Since she was 15, she had to behave like an _adult_ now. Not only that, but she was going to have to wear a dress. Her, wearing a dress! How impractical was that? She would have at least tried to convince her father to let her wear a suit instead, if he hadn't already commissioned her own classmate Marinette to make a custom dress for her, just for the event. Now she had to wear it, or she would seem ungrateful. Ugh. It was going to be pure hell.

"Fine," she snapped, striding over and sitting on the chair opposite Kim.

"Whoa, what's up with you today? Are you okay?"

"I'm _fine_ , let's just get this over with."

Max tapped some numbers into his phone. "There's an 87% chance Kim will win, meaning he'll have managed to beat everyone in the class. Well, almost everyone." He turned and glanced at Nathaniel, who was sitting in a corner drawing, not taking part. He was the only classmate who wasn't crowded around the table watching.

"Oh, I'm definitely gonna win," Kim said, putting his arm up on the table ready to start. "Look how big my arm muscles are compared to Alix's noodle arms."

Without saying anything, Alix pushed up her sleeve and then grabbed his hand so tightly it cut off circulation to his fingers.

"Hey, you don't need to hold on that tight, it's not gonna make a difference–"

"Can we just start already?"

Max cleared his throat. "Okay, are you ready? 3, 2, 1, go!"

In less than a second Alix slammed Kim's arm down on the table. "I win. You happy now?"

Kim's face had gone as bright red as his hoodie. "Wait... no... I wasn't ready... I demand a rematch!"

"Don't be a sore loser, I'm not in the kind of mood where I would hesitate to murder someone right now."

The bell rang for the end of the school day. Everyone began packing up their things and heading to the locker room. Alix quickly gathered her books and then started to leave.

"Hey Alix, wait!" Marinette ran to catch up with her.

"What do you want?"

"Well first of all congratulations for winning the arm-wrestling contest, I'm so glad someone knocked Kim down a peg, how did you even do that?"

Alix shrugged. "I was just in the mood for breaking someone's arm, I guess."

"Oh! And the other thing... I put pockets on the dress I made for you, okay? Because I hate it when dresses don't have pockets, so I knew it needed those. And make sure you send pictures of you wearing it! I totally want to see!"

"Whatever," Alix said, not intending to send any pictures to anyone at all.

"And thank your dad again from me, okay? I'm so honoured to actually get a chance to make an actual dress for someone! It's so exciting! You're gonna look _amazing–_ "

"I have to go now," Alix muttered, walking away as fast as possible. She didn't want to have to think about that stupid dress for a second longer than she had to.

 

 

That evening she reluctantly tried on the dress. To her delight, it was too long for her. Perfect – if it didn't fit, she didn't have to wear it, right? Maybe she could just wear something more comfortable instead, or just stay at home and not go? Unfortunately that turned out not to be the case.

"Marinette also sent those shoes for you," her father said, pointing to a pair of sparkly blue things in the corner of the room. "Put those on, then the dress will be the perfect length."

"But dad, I can't wear those, those are _heels_. I can't walk in them. I'll just... I'll fall over and look stupid."

"Will you just try them on at least?"

Alix crossed her arms. "No, I'm not wearing them, and there's no way you can make me."

"For goodness' sake, they're just shoes."

"They're not just shoes, they're high heels and I hate them! I'm not wearing heels! Why don't _you_ wear them, huh?"

Mr Kubdel rolled his eyes. "Being 15 does not give you an excuse to throw temper tantrums about something as silly as wearing a pair of shoes. Just put them on."

Alix was about to yell something about how she wasn't throwing a temper tantrum, before realizing that would prove his point. Silently fuming, she put on the shoes.

"That's better," her father said. "You look fine, don't worry."

"I don't look like me, though."

"Of course you do - who else do you know with bright pink hair?"

Jalil walked into the room, ready to go too. "I know a bunch of people with bright pink hair actually..." He yawned. "Do I have to come with you? I have so much work to do, you know, university is not easy..."

"It's better that you do come along," Mr Kubdel replied. "It will be a valuable experience for you if this is the job field you want to go into, so stay by my side. That means no running off with Alix to mess around. I don't want a repeat of the sock-sliding incident, thank you."

"I'm not even wearing socks," Alix huffed. "And I swear I didn't knock over that statue that time, that was totally someone else–"

"And no spending all your time at the refreshments table either. I'm not having you brewing another potion of mango juice and ketchup, or whatever it was."

"Orange juice actually, and it didn't taste that bad–"

"And you are forbidden from taking your phone along. I don't want you spending the whole evening looking at a screen."

"What? That is so unfair! I'll be so bored, you know I hate stuff like this! I never even wanted to go in the first place!" She tried to stand up but forgot she was wearing heels, and promptly tripped over.

"You heard me. Your phone stays at home."

"Ugh, fine, be that way. But can I at least take my pocket watch?"

"Alright, but I don't want to see you fiddling with it too much or I'll confiscate it. You're not a child anymore so you need to stop behaving like one. Start learning to actually socialize with people properly."

 _Socialize_. She hated that word so much. What was the point in making small talk with a bunch of snooty rich people who she didn't even care about? How did anyone ever even enjoy events like these? She would rather be doing homework than this.

Wobbling over to her room, she grabbed her precious watch and slipped it into one of the pockets Marinette had sewn on her dress, then returned to her family, ready to leave.


	2. Chapter 2

The event was just as boring as Alix had predicted it would be. She had already forgotten everyone she had been introduced to and her head felt like it was buzzing, like she just needed to get away from everyone and be alone for a while. There was no chance of that, though – there were still hours to go. Her feet already ached from the heels. How was it that skates were so easy to balance in, yet these shoes from hell were so easy to fall over in? Why would anyone choose to wear these? Not to mention, it was reminding her far too much of that time Reflekta had tried to take over the school and turn everyone into a copy of herself, heels and everything. It wasn't fun to remember.

She was distracted from her thoughts by the strange sensation that the side of her leg was burning. What on earth was that? Slipping her hand into her pocket, her fingers closed around the pocket watch. It had heated up significantly, like a phone that had been left to charge too long. That had never happened before. Why was it doing that?

While her father was busy chatting with someone she grabbed Jalil's arm. "I need to talk to you about something. Come with me."

"What, right now? I'll get into trouble if I leave–"

"It'll only take a second, I promise!"

"Okay..."

They headed off to one of the empty offices in a deserted corridor. She remembered sock-sliding around here that one time so long ago, wishing she could do it again. The floors here were just so shiny and smooth...

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

She pulled the watch out of her pocket and opened it. The little hologram girl was glowing a much brighter blue than normal, fading in and out like a pulsar. The surface of the watch cover was even warmer now. "The watch is being weird. Do you have any idea what's going on with it?"

"No, I mean, it's your watch, not mine..."

"But you're the history nerd, you love this stuff! Please just have a proper look?"

Jalil took the watch and looked at it closely, but then handed it back, shaking his head. "Honestly I have no idea. You'd be better off asking dad. Speaking of which, I had better get back quickly, hopefully he hasn't yet noticed I'm missing..."

"Yeah, same..."

They quickly hurried back to the main hall, but it was too late. Their father was standing frowning at them as they approached, tapping his foot on the floor.

"What did I tell you about wandering off? Stop behaving like children!"

"But dad, I'm so _bored_ ," Alix complained.

"Go talk to someone then."

"I don't even know anyone here!"

Mr Kubdel took a quick look around the room. "Why don't you go say hello to Henri Duparc over there? You haven't spoken to him yet today and you know how influential he is, you should definitely speak to him at some point today..."

"Oh god please no, I hate him, he's always so mean and stuck up–"

"Just get it over with. And no making a scene this time."

"I didn't make a scene last time! I told you, me stepping on his foot was an accident, and anyway it served him right for being so rude–"

"Will you just go already?"

"FINE."

Alix stomped over to where the rich businessman stood, looking at one of the exhibits on the wall and pretending to seem interested. He was the older cousin of one of the kids at her school from Ms Mendeleiev's class, and was indeed very rich and influential. He was the kind of person who could make or break someone's entire career with his influence. Everyone tended to tiptoe around him to stay on his good side – which was rather difficult, considering his obnoxious personality. But then again, in the world of rich businesspeople, there were many people like that. The best bet was to just be polite and hope he would find nothing to complain about. Unfortunately, Alix was very much the kind of person he liked to complain about.

"Good evening," she muttered, trying to sound like she wasn't in a foul mood.

"Oh, hello there Miss Kubdel!" Mr Duparc replied in that snobby, nasally voice that so many rich people seemed to love using. "I didn't even notice you were here today – though I suppose that I might just not have been able to see you, seeing as you're ever so short. But wait, what's this? Little Miss Tomboy is wearing a dress with heels for once? I'm very glad to see that indeed! You actually look respectable for once."

She clenched her fist behind her back. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're not looking like the mess you usually seem to be. Usually you look so unprofessional and lower class, but you seem to actually be behaving yourself this time. Thank goodness you've grown out of that stupid childish tomboy phase of yours. I hope you've put your sock-sliding and rollerskating and unseemly aggressiveness behind you once and for all."

"What do you have against rollerskating?" she snapped. "And seriously, what the hell is wrong with being a tomboy anyway?" She regretted it as soon as she said it – her dad had warned her not to make a scene, and she was already heading in the right direction for that.

"It's so unladylike. You're doing so much better today, though I'd suggest growing your hair longer and having it a more natural colour, and getting rid of that unsightly arm hair of yours, and perhaps putting on some makeup. And of course, it would be a good idea to stop being so temperamental. Perhaps it's just teenage hormonal mood swings and will pass in some years, or else you'll never find a man to marry."

"I don't care," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"See what I mean? Temperamental. You really ought to learn to control your temper better."

"Well maybe you should learn to leave people alone and let them do what they want with their lives!"

"Don't speak to me in that tone of voice, young lady, it won't make you any friends. It seems like you haven't actually improved in behaviour as much as I thought. You really are still the little brat I remember stomping on my foot."

Alix took a deep breath. She knew if she stayed here much longer she'd end up yelling at him, and her dad would _not_ be happy if that happened.

"Excuse me, I need to go," she said, quickly walking away.

"Yes, go cool off a bit!" he called after her.

 

Striding down the empty corridors did nothing to make her less upset. Why did people always care so much about her life choices? Why did it even _matter?_ Did everyone honestly have to force her to try and be whatever their idea of a perfect girl was, rather than just letting her be herself? Yes, she was a tomboy, a bit impulsive at times, a bit too fiery and competitive – so what? It wasn't any better or worse than being a goody-two-shoes. She just wished everyone would leave her alone. It wasn't even enough that she had forced herself into an uncomfortable dress and shoes, no, apparently she had to change her complete personality too if she wanted any respect. It was just too much. And usually she wouldn't care what anyone thought of her, but this time things were going to reflect on her father too, and she couldn't let her family down like that. Ugh... why was it so difficult to be the kind of person she was supposed to be?

She slammed open a side door and stormed into an empty office, but suddenly walked straight into someone. Stepping back she saw a familiar face in front of her, the cat superhero who was always helping save Paris.

"Wait... Alix?" Chat Noir asked, staring at her. "Is that you?"

She didn't want to talk to anyone right now, and she hadn't wanted anyone she knew to see her wearing this dress. Why did he have to run into her now?

"Yeah, it's me," she said, glaring up at him.

"Whoa..." He was still staring, looking up and down at the dress. "You look... you look so–"

"I know I look nice, I don't care!" she yelled suddenly, feeling hot tears start to run down her face. "Just be quiet because I don't want to hear about it!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry... Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Who cares, you won't understand. It's just a stupid rich kid problem."

"Let me guess," Chat Noir said, leaning against the door frame. "Events like these are boring and stifling as heck, right? And you hate that you have to be the perfect child all the time, and there's so much pressure on you to uphold your family's name, and it's super stressful, and you're not allowed to just be yourself... Is it something like that? Because I totally understand how that feels..."

His mind flashed back to the many events he had to attend as a civilian, under the strict watchful eye of his father, never allowed to do as he pleased. He really did know exactly how it felt. That was almost every day of his life for him. Only as a superhero did he ever feel the freedom to do anything he wanted, without having to worry about the consequences.

To his surprise, Alix leaned forwards and just started crying into his chest. Even with heels on she wasn't any taller than that.

"Well... um... you can talk to me about it if you want," he mumbled, trying not to freak out.

"Nah, it's fine," Alix said, stepping back and wiping her eyes. The memory of when she had been akumatized and killed him had suddenly come back to her for some reason, and she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him everything – even if he really did seem to understand how she was feeling. "I should probably get back soon so I don't get told off too much... What are you even doing here, anyway?"

It took a few seconds for him to remember. What was he doing here? "Oh... Well, I had been fiddling around with the settings on my baton and I discovered a tracking system. I mean, I already knew there were trackers, but it turns out there's a preset one that I just unlocked. I followed it and it led me to this location. In fact..." He took a look at the screen on his baton. "It says that the thing I'm tracking is in this very room. But what could it possibly be? This is just an empty office..."

Alix took the watch out of her pocket. It was even hotter now than it had been before, though she had been too pre-occupied to notice until now. "It's not tracking my watch, is it? Because this thing has been acting weird all evening for some reason."

"Huh, that's really weird, it does seem to be your watch. I wonder why that's happening... I guess I'll have to ask Plagg..."

"Who's Plagg?"

"Oh, uh, it's a long story, don't worry about it."

"Okay... Anyway, I should probably get back now before I get into any more trouble. But let me know if you find out why your baton is tracking my watch."

"I will, don't you worry. And good luck for the rest of the evening – I hope it goes better for you. I'll _cat-_ ch you later – get it? _Cat_ -ch? Because I'm a cat?" He grinned and zoomed off out of the window before she could react to what had to be one of the lamest puns ever made.

 

"I'm sorry for ditching again," she said to her father as soon as she arrived back in the main hall. She wondered if her eyes were still red from crying, though she hoped not. She braced herself for a telling off.

"It's fine," her dad sighed. "Listen... why don't you go and have some snacks from the refreshments table. They have plenty of chocolate. Maybe that'll be better than antagonizing the guests."

"Wait, really? You're not gonna tell me off?"

"Just go before I change my mind."

She hurried off to the refreshments area and ate as much chocolate as she could handle, until it was finally time to leave. No one had spoken to her in the meantime, which was exactly what she wanted. At least the second half of the evening had been better than the first.

Once they finally got home that night, she was starting to wonder if she had overreacted earlier about having to wear a dress and heels. Of course she hated it, but it wasn't exactly her father's fault for wanting her to make a good impression on people, was it? Maybe she had gone a bit overboard.

"Alix, are you alright?" her father asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry. Sorry for being a brat earlier. I'm pretty tired, though, I'm going to sleep." She headed off to bed without another word.


	3. Chapter 3

On Monday morning before heading to school, Alix's household received an invitation to a gala at the Agreste mansion on Sunday, for the opening of some fashion event or other.

"You don't have to go to this one if you don't want to," Mr Kubdel said to her.

"Oh thank god..." She picked up her bag and headed to school, feeling in a much better mood.

Unfortunately, her good mood did not last very long at all.

"YOU LOOKED _AMAZING!_ " Marinette screeched in her face the second she walked into the classroom.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Alix asked her, sitting down in her seat.

Marinette waved her phone. "I saw the pictures of the event! The dress you wore! IT LOOKED SO GOOD ON YOU! Ahhh just look at you, you look like a little _angel!_ I'm so gay- uh, I mean, proud! So proud! Hey everyone, look how pretty Alix looked in the dress I made her!"

Everyone started crowding around to have a look at the photos, gushing about how great she looked and asking why she never usually put any effort into her appearance if this was what she could look like if she tried. Alix sank into her seat, seriously contemplating launching herself out of the window just to get away from the embarrassment of it all. This wasn't how she wanted her classmates to see her – that wasn't who she really was.

"Kim, what do you think?" Marinette asked, shoving her phone in Kim's face.

"Pfffft, she's not cute," Kim said quickly. "Definitely not."

"Oh come on," Marinette said, elbowing him in the side, "you barely even looked. You have to admit she looks great."

"Fine, if you say so! It's not like I care!"

"Oh, and Adrien! Um..." Marinette blushed and stepped towards Adrien, who had just entered the room. "You, uh... Look! Cute pictures of Alix! I mean... I made this dress for her and, um... don't you think she looks really pretty? Like... what do you think?"

Adrien hesitated for a few seconds. "Marinette, that's a really beautiful dress and I love it. You're really talented. But... we all know Alix hates wearing dresses, right? I like her aesthetic how she is now. It suits her just as much as your dress does. I think she looks nice wearing whatever she wants. Though of course it was very kind of you to make that dress for her."

"Oh my... thank you Adrien!" Marinette squeaked.

Alix, meanwhile, had decided _not_ to launch herself out of the window, since at least Adrien Agreste seemed to get it. He was the only kid in the class who she didn't hate at this moment.

Later on in the day, she went and found him in the library. "Hey Adrien," she said, sitting down beside him, "thanks for being the only person to actually appreciate me as my normal self."

"Oh, no problem," he said, smiling, polite as ever. "In fact, I sort of... I understand how it feels. My father's always getting me to model his clothing line, and I guess I don't mind it all that much, but people are always praising it and it isn't really _me_..."

"Yeah, that's exactly it! I only went to that event and wore Marinette's dress because I was forced to, not because I wanted to, and I hated every second of it. Fair enough that some people like it, but I hate it. And to have people always telling me that I should be like that more often, or only appreciating me when I'm not being myself, it's just awful."

"Well, that's the life of having a rich, influential family, I suppose," Adrien sighed.

"I'm not even that rich though – I mean, I guess we're pretty well-off compared to most people, but not like you."

"But your family is well-respected. That's how I managed to convince my father to invite your family to the gala at my house this weekend. Other than that the only person I know there will be Chloé, and you know what she's like. It won't be fun. I'll just have to be my dad's puppet the whole time. It's just so restrictive. But I know you don't like events like this, so don't worry, you don't have to come along."

"I know, I'm not going."

"Ah. Well, I hope you'll have a better Sunday than I will." He was smiling, but Alix could tell he was feeling miserable about it.

"I'll leave you alone now to get on with your work," she said, getting up. "See you later."

 

When she got home that evening, there was a delivery box waiting for her in her bedroom. She opened it to see five new dresses inside. A note was attached. The dresses were from Adrien's father's company – the Gabriel fashion line – as a thank you for her family agreeing to support them at the gala this weekend. This way if she ever went to any event, she would wear the dresses and promote Gabriel's company, and it would be good for business.

She crumpled up the note in her hand. More dresses? That was the opposite of what she wanted!

 

Late that night, she knew she should have been asleep, but she was staying up playing Super Smash Bros. on her 3DS anyway. She had to practise, there was no way she was going to lose to Kim next time he challenged her to it, which he had threatened to do at some point. There was a sudden tap on her window, making her jump. She closed the 3DS, then went over and opened the blinds to see Chat Noir there.

"It's like 11PM, what are you doing here?" she whispered, opening the window slightly.

"I have news about your watch!" he replied. "Well, kind of. But I can't let anyone see or hear. Just get your watch, and I'll take you up to the roof where no one can hear us."

"What, now? I'm tired, I'm already in my pyjamas..."

"Those are pyjamas? It's just an oversized t-shirt and shorts!"

"Well it's comfy! But fine, I guess I may as well..." She grabbed her watch, then climbed out of the window and held onto Chat Noir's baton as he extended it up towards the roof. It was windy and cold up here, though not too dark in the moonlight. Alix stood with her arms crossed.

"Alright, explain."

"Okay. You know how I'm a magical superhero who gets powers from my ring, right? Well the way that works is that there's a tiny genie thing who infuses my ring with powers whenever I need to transform into Chat Noir. His name is Plagg, he's tiny and grumpy and looks like a little flying cat, and he eats cheese all the time. Anyway, he told me that he thinks he knows why your watch is connected to my baton, but to be sure he needs to actually look at it. And that can't happen unless I detransform. So either you lend me your watch so I can let him see it and then just tell you what he says, or–"

"There is no way I'm lending my watch to anyone!"

"That's what I thought. In that case I guess I'll detransform in front of you and you can just show Plagg the watch, which means you'll find out my civilian identity... You have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? It has to stay a secret."

"Don't worry, I won't tell."

"Okay, thanks. Well, here I go. You're going to be the only person who knows. Even Ladybug doesn't know."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I have no idea who she is, and she has no idea who I am. Anyway... Plagg, detransform me."

The superhero costume melted away and left a very familiar face standing before Alix.

"... _Adrien???_ "

"Yep, it's me."

"Oh my _god_ , it was _you_ this whole time? I can't... holy frick..."

"You're okay with it being me, right?"

"What? Yeah, of course, you're my _classmate!_ This is... this is awesome! I can't believe I know an actual superhero!"

Adrien chuckled nervously. "Well, you technically already knew me before..."

"I know, but that was different. Hey, was that why you were being so nice to me at school today? Because on Friday when you saw how upset I was at the museum event?"

"Oh, well, kind of..."

A tiny black cat-like creature suddenly floated out of Adrien's shirt pocket. "So, am I getting a look at that watch or not? Because if not then I want Camembert. Actually, I want Camembert no matter what happens."

Alix stared in disbelief. "Is that... is that Plagg?"

"Yes, I'm Plagg," Plagg said. "Now can I see that watch please?"

"Uh yeah... sure..." She opened the watch and held it up. The light from the hologram made everything appear blue. Plagg floated up and had a close look at it.

"Yep," he concluded, "that is indeed Rania's watch."

"Rania? Who's Rania? Is she one of my ancestors or something?"

"I'm guessing so. She was a previous holder of the black cat miraculous, back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the youngest kid in a huge watchmaking family and had so many older siblings she was set to inherit absolutely nothing. So she kicked up a fuss about it, and her dad crafted this special watch for her and gave it to her when she turned 15. Since she had a pretty active lifestyle for a young lady back then, she did a bit of tinkering and linked up the watch with the baton so that she'd have a way of tracking it down if she ever lost it. And that connection is still there, which is why Adrien could track down your watch the other day."

Alix grinned. "Whoa, that's so cool. You know, I was having a pretty bad week, but I think you just changed that. Like, not only is my classmate a superhero, but my ancestor was too? That is the coolest thing _ever!_ "

"Can I have Camembert now?" Plagg asked. Adrien rolled his eyes and pulled a piece of Camembert out of his pocket, giving it to Plagg who started digging in immediately.

"So that's why everyone always says you smell like cheese..." Alix said. "Anyway, how do you even have time for doing superhero stuff? Doesn't your dad keep you on a tight schedule all the time?"

"I honestly don't know how I manage," Adrien said. "It's a nightmare sometimes. But at least I get to have fun when I'm Chat Noir, and I get to hang out with Ladybug too, which is nice. That makes it worth it. Though it does get so difficult sometimes, having to balance schoolwork and everything my father tells me to do as well as this..."

"You know what? I'll go to your gala thing on Sunday."

"Wait... really? You don't have to if you don't want to, it's fine!"

"I'm not just going to leave you to the mercy of Chloé on what should be your day off considering you're always _saving Paris_ and everything. You deserve to have a friend there. I'm going, and that's final."

"Oh, well, thanks."

"No problem." She closed her watch and crossed her arms again. "I guess the youngest child rule makes sense now, if Rania was upset about being the youngest kid and not inheriting anything..."

Plagg stopped eating and looked up. "What youngest child rule?"

"The rule that the watch passes to the youngest child on their 15th birthday."

"That's weird, I don't remember that being a rule... In fact, I'm pretty sure Rania gave the watch to Leila, who was her oldest child..."

"That can't be right," Alix muttered. "When my dad gave this watch to me he told me..." She trailed off, feeling doubtful suddenly. Was it possible her dad had _lied?_ No... there had to be some other explanation... "Are you sure she gave the watch to her oldest child?"

"Not completely, but I think so. It was a long time ago and I was put into stasis very soon after. But if you want to check then I'm sure there'll be some record of it. She used to keep a diary, and if your family is as historical as Adrien says they are then they've probably still got her diaries hidden away somewhere."

"I'll have to ask Jalil about that, if anyone knows it'll be him." She clutched the watch tightly in her hand. Was it true? Should the watch actually have gone to Jalil? Well, if it did then she wouldn't have had any reason to get akumatized and kill her classmates, something that still haunted her... The night felt much colder all of a sudden. "I think I should go to sleep now, if that's all."

"Yep, that's all," Plagg said, going back to eating cheese.

"I'll put you back in your room," Adrien said. "Plagg, claws out!" The next second he was back as Chat Noir again, with Plagg having been absorbed into the ring and now nowhere to be seen. Chat Noir used the baton to drop Alix back down to her room, then he left across the rooftops.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning before school, Alix decided to ask Jalil about if he knew where to find their ancestor's diaries. She opened the door to his room to see him sitting wrapped in several layers of blankets at his desk, staring blank-faced at his laptop.

"Uh... Jalil? Could you help me out with something?"

"Can this wait?" he asked. "I have this project due by the end of the week... also I'm behind on it... and I haven't slept all night... and I'm on my 6th cup of coffee... Actually, since you're there, can you get me another cup of coffee?"

"Yeah, but please get some sleep," Alix said, taking the empty coffee cup off his desk. "You won't be able to turn in your project if you're dead from sleep deprivation and caffeine overdose."

"I'll be fine, don't worry. What did you want help with, by the way?"

"It's okay, I'll just ask you next week. It's not urgent."

"Phew, thanks."

Alix left to go refill the coffee cup. True, it wasn't urgent, but it was still pressing on her mind a lot. Was the youngest child rule true? Was it made up? Why? She wanted answers.

She came across her father just about to leave for work. "Oh – dad! I changed my mind, by the way, I'm gonna go to the gala thing on Sunday after all."

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Adrien's in my class, right? He'll be as bored as I am. I can keep him company."

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh, it's because of Adrien, eh?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I suppose he _is_ a model, after all, so it's really no surprise if he's someone you're interested in... though this gala wouldn't exactly be the right place to get to know him like that when you could just talk to him at school–"

It took her several seconds to figure out what her father was implying. "Wait – no, not like _that!_ Sheesh! He's just my friend!"

"Really? Because you can tell me if you like him–"

"No!"

She turned around and left before he could say anything else. Honestly, why did everyone always assume everything between a guy and a girl had to be romantic? Like, how did that idea even cross people's minds? She'd never been able to understand it. It seemed so counter-intuitive. She hadn't even considered Adrien like that – though, to be fair, as far as she could remember she hadn't considered anyone like that. Not that she hadn't tried, of course, since everyone else always seemed to all the time. But really... just _why_...

 

That week at school was a little nicer than usual. Alix had never really had close friends in the class, and she usually just kept herself to herself, but Adrien was finding more and more excuses to hang out with her and it was a refreshing change. He seemed to be happy to have someone he could confide in about being Chat Noir, and he was always telling her about what adventures he and Ladybug had been getting up to recently, patrolling around the rooftops of Paris by night.

There hadn't been many akuma attacks lately – maybe Hawk Moth was finally getting tired of it – but there were still plenty of adventures to talk about. Saving animals stuck in trees, preventing car crashes, stopping burglaries, helping people get home safely in the dark, helping keep the neighbourhood clean... there were so many tasks for a pair of superheroes to be getting on with.

Adrien himself was just so glad he could finally talk to someone other than Plagg about this, especially since Plagg never seemed to be listening to him when he was speaking. He wished he could tell his best friend Nino, but the fewer people who knew he was Chat Noir, the better. Anyway, Alix was a good friend. She listened to him rambling on about his adventures with interest – though she did say she'd prefer to hear stories where someone was getting beaten up, which he really didn't have many of.

One thing Adrien was surprised about was that Alix hadn't yet asked him if he and Ladybug were a couple. He had expected her to, since it was something that everyone in Paris always seemed to be debating about, no matter what he or Ladybug told the Ladyblog. But she just hadn't even brought it up. It didn't even seem to have occurred to her. Maybe that was a good thing, since Adrien knew that Ladybug didn't really love him back. Not as Chat Noir, anyway. Or rather, she did love him, but not as anything other than a friend and trusted partner. At this point he had given up hope, although he still carried on his ridiculous flirting, since it seemed odd to stop now.

In any case, he had other things to be thinking about now. Like the gala on Sunday. He actually found himself looking forward to it, since at least Alix was going to be there too. It was always fun hanging out with her. Maybe he'd get to find out more about her watch, if she'd managed to find Rania's diaries by that time. It would certainly be cool to hear more about her family history.

And he'd get to see her in a pretty dress again. Not that it mattered, of course. She was pretty anyway, no matter what she was wearing. Whether it was that gorgeous blue evening gown Marinette had made for her, or her normal clothes that she wore to school every day. Or even in a poor excuse for pyjamas, in the middle of the night, standing barefoot on her rooftop illuminated in moonlight, smirking at him with her arms crossed, her messy pink hair ruffling in the wind...

He tried to get the thought out of his mind. He had too much other stuff to be thinking about to focus on that.

 

 

It was Friday morning, and as soon as Adrien sat down Chloé practically draped herself across his desk.

"Oh Adrien!" she simpered, gazing at him. "I so can't wait for the gala on Sunday! Won't it be so much fun?"

"You know I don't like events like that, Chloé," he muttered.

"But I'll be there! You and me, we can definitely find something fun to do!"

"And Alix too. Her family's invited as well."

"Oh good, the more the merrier!" Chloé said, though she didn't mean it. Standing up again, she leaned forwards and whispered in Adrien's ear, "By the way, I know about the decision your father says you have to make before your 16th birthday... There's only a few months to go, so you had better choose quickly... and wisely..." She chuckled and sauntered off again.

Adrien suddenly felt cold shivers running down his back. He had completely forgotten about that decision. It was something he seriously tried to avoid thinking about, although he knew he probably shouldn't. How did Chloé know about it, anyway? How much did she know? Was she planning something? He couldn't help spending the rest of the day on edge.


	5. Chapter 5

For the gala on Sunday, Alix chose the least flashiest of the dresses to wear, though it was still uncomfortable and still required heels to fit. Jalil was allowed to stay at home to rest since he had, by his count, only had 5 total hours of sleep that week, working hard to get his project finished by the due date.

By the time Alix and her father arrived at the Agreste mansion, Chloé was already there. She had her arm linked up with Adrien's and held a champagne glass (filled with orange juice, though) in her other hand. Adrien pushed her off as soon as he saw Alix.

"I'm so glad you could make it!" he said to her, rushing up to her.

"Indeed," said Gabriel Agreste, walking over and putting a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Do you want me to show you around the house?" Adrien asked Alix quickly. "When you were here at Christmas you only saw the dining room so if you want to see the rest of it I could–"

"Adrien, you don't need to," Gabriel said. "We have people to show the guests round if they really want to see the house."

"But father, Alix is my classmate, that would be weird. I can just do it myself."

"Very well then, if it's alright with her."

Alix looked up at her own dad. "Can I?"

"Sure, but don't take too long," he replied.

"We won't."

She followed Adrien up the stairs to his bedroom. Chloé watched them, frowning, then headed upstairs herself and waited outside the closed door. She leaned against the wall and took a sip of her orange juice, wondering why Adrien always seemed to prefer hanging out with other people rather than her these days. Perhaps it would be worth finally asking him about it – though she wasn't sure she wanted to face the answer.

 

"Dude, you have a _skate ramp_ in your room? I would kill a person for one of those!" Alix looked around the giant room in awe, a huge grin on her face. "And a rock climbing wall too? Heck, I would kill two or three people for one of those! And if I wasn't wearing a dress I would have already climbed it, I can tell you that."

"Yeah, it's pretty fun," Adrien said, taking a seat on his bed. "Anyway, uh... If you really want to see the house I'll show you but honestly that was just an excuse to get away from Chloé and my father. And I know you hate events like these, so instead of being downstairs we can just hang out in here..."

"Whoa, Adrien, I never knew you were that sneaky. But sure, as long as we don't stay too long. My dad will kill me otherwise. I have a record when it comes to messing around and misbehaving at social events. But apparently now I'm supposed to be a responsible adult."

"Yeah, me too..." Adrien sighed, looking down at his shoes. "It really is nice to have a family with a lot of money and a room like this, but... sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. I just wish I had a bit more freedom, you know? That's why I love being Chat Noir so much. It finally feels like I can do what I want without having to listen to anyone..." He sat up suddenly. "So anyway – should we play video games or something?"

"Yeah, sure."

Adrien turned on the TV at a low volume and put on Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Since he already knew he was one of the best players at this game in his entire school he went easy on her, though he guessed that if they were playing Super Smash Bros. instead then he probably wouldn't stand a chance. In any case, it was fun. Certainly a lot more fun than if he had been downstairs with Chloé wittering on in his ear instead.

He suddenly heard Nathalie calling him from outside the room somewhere "Adrien? Where are you? Are you in there?"

Looking at his watch he noticed that they had spent much more time away than they probably should have. He grabbed the remote and switched off the TV. "I'm going to be in so much trouble if she comes in here and sees I've been wasting time!" he whispered. "Quick – hide–"

Grabbing Alix's hand, he pulled her into the bathroom and quickly shut the door just as Nathalie opened his bedroom door to look inside. They heard her footsteps getting closer and closer to the bathroom and they hid behind the shower wall, out of sight. Nathalie opened the bathroom door, didn't see anyone, and closed it again, leaving.

Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. His heart rate slowed down a bit...

...and then it picked back up again.

"Uh, dude? You okay?" Alix had her arms crossed, leaning against the wall and looking up at him. "She's gone now, you can relax... You look like you've eaten a chilli or something..."

Was he blushing? Was that why his face felt so hot?

"Are you gonna move or what?" she asked.

Oh yes, he was standing in front of her... very close to her... Had her eyes always been that blue? They seemed to be brighter than he had remembered. And prettier.

"Is it me or is it hot in here?" he mumbled, awkwardly running a hand through his hair.

"Pretty sure it's just you."

She must have noticed him blushing. She couldn't _not_ have noticed. Yet looking down at her, he saw that she still had the exact same expression on her face that she'd had before. She wasn't even bothered. How? How did she just ignore the fact that the two of them were standing so close, so very close that he caught the scent of her shampoo, so close that if he leaned forward just a little he would be able to feel her breathe...

"Hey Alix, um, you look really nice today by the way," he stammered. "Like... really nice."

She shrugged. "If you say so. Anyway, we should get back before we get in trouble." She pushed him aside and headed towards the door. "Come on."

Adrien's brain seemed to be screaming at him. His heart felt like it was going at a thousand beats a second.

Oh no... this was how he felt around Ladybug, too. And he knew exactly how he felt about Ladybug. He had a crush on her. But that meant...

Uh-oh.

He still wasn't sure how Alix hadn't noticed, to be honest. He knew he hadn't exactly been subtle. She was still standing there, waiting for him, her high-heeled foot tapping on the floor, looking at him with her eyebrows raised. Had she really not noticed at all? Was she that oblivious? Or did she just not care?

He took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves. "Yeah, let's go." He walked over to the door and opened it – then his heart sank. Standing there on the other side was Chloé Bourgeois. Her champagne glass was empty and she was smiling in a way that made him feel rather worried.

"Well, well, well," Chloé said. "What do we have here?"

"I was just showing Alix around," Adrien said quickly.

"That's funny, because I've been waiting outside your bedroom door since the second you two went in, and you haven't left at all..."

"Alright, fine, we were playing video games. We didn't want to get bored, okay? Please don't tell my father."

Chloé chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to tell your father that you two were playing video games. For starters, I don't really believe that."

"But it's true–"

"Oh shush. I'm going to tell your father – both your fathers, in fact – that you two are a couple. Seems much more accurate, doesn't it? After all, why else would you be hiding in the bathroom?" She let out a high-pitched laugh, then quickly ran off out of the room.

"I'm dead," Adrien said. "Are you dead too?"

"Yeah, probably," Alix muttered. "At least, I'm dead for goofing off when I'm not supposed to, that's for sure. I don't think my dad would care too much if we were actually a couple though. He pretty much already thinks I was just here to hit on you. Don't worry though, I'm not. You're my friend."

Adrien couldn't help his heart sinking a little further. So she hadn't noticed, or cared. Never mind. It didn't matter now anyway. He was going to be in so much trouble.

 

"Whatever Chloé told you, she's lying," Alix said to her father as soon as she got back downstairs. "She's a liar. A lying liar who's lying."

"Alix, it's alright if you have a boyfriend, you know."

"But I _don't!_ I'd tell you if I did! She's lying! I promise Adrien's just my friend!"

"Fine, but you need to get out of this bad habit of running off and hiding at social events like these, no matter what's going on."

"Okay, yeah, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

"That's better."

Phew – she hadn't got told off nearly as much as she had expected to. She wondered how Adrien was getting on.

"Father, Chloé was mistaken," Adrien said quickly. Gabriel had ordered him into another room to speak to him one-on-one. "I don't know what she told you but..."

"It doesn't matter what she told me," said Gabriel. "From now on at events like these, you are staying by my side where I can keep an eye on you so you don't disappear. If you ever need to leave for some reason, you will be accompanied by Nathalie or your bodyguard. Is that clear?"

Adrien hung his head. "Yes, father."

"Good. However..." Gabriel's frown lifted. "Your 16th birthday is only a few months away. You know the decision you have to make by then, and you know that unless you change it, Chloé Bourgeois will be the default choice. But... if you are wishing to explore other options before then, I will not be opposed to it. You know the guidelines."

Adrien shivered involuntarily. He really, really didn't want to think about that decision. "Yes father, thank you..."

"Now, let's return to the event, and this time you will stay by my side until the end. If you want to speak to your friend, or girlfriend if that's the case, then you will either do it in my presence or at school another time."

"She's not my girlfriend," Adrien said glumly. He followed his father back out to the main area. Alix waved at him, but he quickly looked away. Maybe it was best not to talk to her for now. Not with his father right there anyway.

 

As soon as Alix got home that evening she changed into more comfortable clothes. There, that was much better! She grabbed her phone and checked her messages... 100+? No way, no one ever talked to her that much, surely. She scrolled down and had a look.

Oh no... _oh no_... Chloé had spread her lies to everyone in the class, and they were all asking about it. Yikes. She quickly replied to as many of the messages as possible telling everyone that Chloé was lying. What a nightmare... Why was Chloé like that, anyway? Messing with people's lives for fun? At least when Lila lied, she only did it to get attention for herself, not to harm anyone. But Chloé? Ugh, that girl had too much fun spreading trouble.

And what was everyone's deal, anyway? Why were people so interested in the love lives of others? Alix just didn't get it – that stuff was _boring_. Who cared, when there were other, more interesting things to obsess over? She simply didn't understand. Sometimes it felt like her brain worked differently to everyone else around her, or something like that. She just couldn't relate. And she was not looking forward to school tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

Sure enough, at school the next day Alix had far too many people coming up to her and asking her for details. She couldn't count the number of times she had to say that Chloé was just lying to be a jerk, as usual. It seemed like the only person in the class who didn't ask her about it was Nathaniel – he just carried on sitting in the corner, doodling, not paying attention to anything that was going on. Thank goodness for that.

Adrien kept out of Alix's way. He knew he'd probably turn into a blushing mess if he spoke to her again, and that would just make people think Chloé had been telling the truth, and... no. It was best to stay away for a while. At least until he got over... whatever this was. Plenty of times throughout the day Alix tried to speak to him, but he always made an excuse and left quickly, usually dragging Nino along with him.

"Dude, what's going on?" Nino asked him.

"I just don't feel like talking to her right now," Adrien muttered. "It's, uh, kinda complicated."

"Don't worry, bro, I've got your back," Nino reassured him.

 

At the end of the day Adrien left the locker room so fast that even Nino didn't get to say bye to him. Alix quickly gathered her things and rushed out after him to speak to him – why was he not talking to her today? Weren't they supposed to be friends? Had she done something wrong without knowing it? She knew she had never been very good at making or keeping friends, so maybe that was it...

"Adrien, wait!" she called as she ran out onto the street. But he had already slammed shut the door of his limo and it began speeding off down the road. So much for getting to talk to him today.

She shook her head and turned around, then stopped as she saw Kim looming over her, his hands on his hips.

"So, tell me again how you and Adrien aren't a couple," he said.

"We're _not_ ," she said, rolling her eyes. "Like I said earlier about a thousand times, Chloé lied."

"Really though? Because don't tell me you think I haven't noticed you and Adrien hanging out with each other all the time lately, you know, always talking to each other and spending time with each other, and you even went to his house on the weekend even though you say you hate events like those and wearing dresses and stuff..."

"Um, it's called having a _friend_ , maybe you should try it some time."

"And why's he not talking to you today?"

"I don't know, and anyway it's none of your business. Now get out of my way!"

"Wait..." He looked a lot less confrontational all of a sudden. "When you say you and Adrien aren't a couple, do you actually mean it? Like, you're not into him, are you? Do you promise?"

Alix had just about had enough. She grabbed the front of Kim's hoodie and pulled him down to her level. "For frick's sake Kim, I'm _not_ interested in Adrien Agreste and we are _not_ a couple! How many times am I going to have to say it for it to get through that stupid thick skull of yours? And even if I was into him, what's the big deal? Why should it matter to you? Why the hell do you even care?"

He was silent for a few seconds. Then he suddenly leaned forwards and kissed her. "Because I like you..."

It had only lasted a second, but the shock of it was enough to cause Alix to let go of his hoodie and stumble backwards a step. She didn't get to say anything else, he had already gone. It wasn't like she would have known what to say to something like that anyway.

As she was walking home, she thought about it. Hopefully Kim didn't have a cold or anything, she didn't want to have caught that. Did he really like her? Well, that was kind of flattering, she supposed. Maybe that was why he always challenged her to things more than others. And what was he going to do now? Would he ask her out? What would she say to that? Pfff, no, of course. Hopefully he wouldn't get akumatized again if she turned him down. She'd just have to do it politely. Anyway, dating someone sounded boring as heck.

But then again... other people seemed to enjoy it, right? There must be _some_ appeal to it if everyone else liked it so much. Maybe she just thought it would be boring because she had never tried before. Maybe if she went out with Kim, she'd enjoy it. Maybe she'd even start to like him back. That was a thing that happened with people, right? They'd get to know someone and then fall in love? Yes, maybe that was why it had never happened to her before. She'd never really had much in the way of friends before. Perhaps if she got to know Kim better, she'd actually end up liking him. Then she'd finally know how it felt, just like everyone else did. She should at least give it a shot. People were always calling Kim hot, after all, she had to end up liking him eventually, surely.

 

Her phone started ringing while she was doing her homework that evening. Of course – it was Kim.

"Hey Kim, what's up?" she asked.

"Uh, I'm sorry about earlier," he said. "That was stupid of me, I was being an idiot, just ignore it... can we just pretend that never happened?"

Alix had actually already forgotten about earlier – clearly it was something that had been pressing on Kim's mind much more than hers. "Whatever, it's no big deal. Just ask me next time first."

"Um... next time?"

"You said you like me, didn't you? I'm assuming that means you want to kiss me again, right? So yeah, just ask next time so I can make sure you don't give me a cold or anything..."

"Oh! Uh yeah... I don't mind... I guess if you want then you could... I don't know... be my girlfriend or something? Just saying..."

"Sure."

"Wait really?"

"Yeah, why not."

"Okay! So, am I supposed to take you out to dinner or something?"

That was quick. "What, today?"

"Yeah, today. Like, now. We could go to that restaurant down the road from school. Apparently it's pretty nice. And it's not too expensive."

Alix laughed. "Kim, I'm rich. Money is no issue for me. But yeah, okay. I'll meet you there soon then."

"See you in an hour then?"

"Yeah, see you."

"Nice, can’t wait… You hang up first, haha."

"Okay," said Alix, and hung up immediately.

Wait. Was she supposed to have done that? The "you hang up first" thing, wasn’t that the flirty thing people did in movies? Did people even do that in real life? Well, apparently Kim had been trying to, and she hadn’t even noticed. Whoops.

Well whatever, that didn't matter. What mattered was that finally, she was going to be a normal teenager for once, going out to dinner with her boyfriend. She would actually know what that felt like now. People always made such a big deal out of it, right? So it must be fun.

 

When she met up with him at the restaurant she realized that he had actually changed clothes and put some effort into his appearance. She wondered if maybe she should have bothered brushing her hair or something – was she supposed to? Whatever, it didn't matter. They sat down and ordered their food.

"So, why do you like me?" Alix asked him. "What do you see in me?"

She really was intrigued about that – what was it that caused someone to have a crush on another person? From what she'd heard it was completely unpredictable. And Alix had never even bothered trying to impress anyone, since she didn't care, so how had this happened? Maybe if she could understand it, then it could happen to her for once.

"You're the only one who can ever give me a real challenge," Kim said. "Like that arm-wrestle? That was hardcore. I'll be honest, I mostly wanted a rematch so you could do that again. And, uh, you're kinda hot. In case you somehow didn't know." He blushed. "So what about you? What do you see in me, huh? I mean, I know I'm totally hot and athletic and..."

Well, there was a question she couldn't answer. For the time being, she really didn't see anything in him. He was just that slightly annoying kid in her class who was always challenging her to stuff. But she felt like it would be rude if she didn't say something nice about him, especially since he was being surprisingly nice to her right now.

"You're... you're pretty cool," she said.

"Oh... thanks."

He sounded like he was expecting her to say something else too. But what? Thinking of fake compliments was so much effort. Luckily the food arrived at that moment, so she didn't have to say anything else.

"Spaghetti and meatballs," Kim said, grinning, twirling his spaghetti around his fork. "Wanna do the kiss thing? You deserved a better first kiss than the one I gave you earlier today."

Alix laughed. "That wasn't my first kiss."

"What, really? Then what was?"

"I can't tell you," Alix said. "But it certainly wasn't you."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"I just can't." She wasn't lying – at a sleepover last year she really had kissed Juleka, who had asked her to. She had only agreed to it because by that point she was wondering if she was a lesbian, since it wasn't like she had ever been interested in boys. But it didn't do anything for her and she'd never been interested in girls either, so lesbian probably wasn't quite right. At least that label seemed to fit Juleka fine. Alix didn't want to out her to anyone without her permission, though, so she kept it a secret.

"Okay, fine," said Kim. "So anyway, wanna share this spaghetti? And do the kiss thing?"

"No thanks." That sounded kind of disgusting. She would much rather just eat her own food. Kim looked a little disappointed but he didn't say anything else about it.

 

"Where were you?" Alix's father asked her when she got back home that evening.

"I was on a date with Kim."

"That boy from your class? Really?"

"Yeah. You don't mind, do you?"

He smiled. "No, of course not! You're perfectly old enough for this sort of thing. But make sure you be responsible, and–"

"Okay, fine, I have to go," she said, leaving the living room quickly. She was in no mood for The Talk, thank you very much. Instead she went to Jalil's room.

"Oh hey Alix, what did you want?"

"I want you to see if you can find something for me," she said. "I found out that the rule about the watch going to the youngest child might not be true, because the first ancestor to receive the watch apparently might have passed it onto her oldest child. But I'm not entirely sure. Apparently she kept a diary through her life so our family might have stored her diaries somewhere, and we can find out from there if it's true or not. Her name is Rania. Do you have any idea where her diaries might be?"

"I think all our family's old stuff is in a storage room in the museum," Jalil said. "I could have a look for it when I do my work placement there soon."

"Awesome, thanks! When will that be?"

"I start in three weeks."

"Three weeks... oh, okay..." She had hoped it would be a lot sooner than that. She didn't want to wait so long to find out.

"Don't worry Alix, I'll find it."

"Oh, and don't tell dad. I don't know how he'd take it."

"It's okay, I promise I won't."

"Thanks Jalil. Goodnight." She left and went back into her own room.

People were always surprised that she and Jalil got along so well, considering how different the two of them were, but they had always been close. He was such a helpful older brother, babysitting her when she was younger, helping her with her homework, never bossing her around. And she tried not to be too bratty. It was a good balance.

She lay down on her bed and had a look at her phone. 100+ messages again? Oh no, what _now_...

It turned out Chloé had seen Kim kissing her and had told everyone about it. Well, it wasn't exactly surprising that someone had seen them, it had been right out in the street and everything. But did it have to be Chloé? And did she really have to tell everyone? At least she wasn't lying this time. Still, how annoying...


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey kitty, you seem kind of _off_ tonight, what's up?"

Chat Noir shook himself out of his thoughts to see his partner Ladybug looking at him, concerned. "It's nothing, really," he said. "It's just... there's this girl I like, and she's with someone else now. That's all. I'll get over it."

He still wasn't sure he could believe it. How exactly had Alix managed to end up with Kim, of all people? He didn't even know those two liked each other. Anyway, he should stop thinking about it now. Alix was not interested in him. It was time to move on.

"I thought the girl you liked was me," Ladybug said, grinning slyly.

"Of course I do," Chat replied. He felt his cheeks growing warm – his lady was actually flirting with him, something that didn't happen too often. Yes, of course he loved Ladybug. He should focus on that.

"You really don't look too happy," Ladybug said. "Why don't you go home early today? I can finish the patrol by myself."

"Are you sure that's okay?"

"Yes."

"Are you _paw_ -sitive?"

"Oh Chat..."

He grinned and leapt down from the rooftop. He ran a few streets away into a dark alleyway and then detransformed back into Adrien.

Yes, Ladybug was the one he loved... He wished he knew who she was beneath the mask. That would make life so much easier. That might even make the _decision_ easier, the one he had to make before his 16th birthday. Ladybug could be perfect for it, he had no idea! If only he knew who she really was...

Ladybug herself suddenly dropped down in front of him, hanging upside-down like a spider. "H-hi Adrien! What are you doing here?"

She seemed to be blushing slightly, or maybe that was just the blood running to her head. The way she acted around Adrien was so starkly different from the way she acted with Chat Noir. It was bizarre.

"I'm just heading home," Adrien said. He stifled a yawn – he really was tired.

"It's quite dark, and late, do you want me to take you home?"

Adrien could feel his face heating up. "Oh, um... no, it's alright, thanks, I'll... I can go home myself... don't let me keep you from your work... goodnight Ladybug, I love you..."

Wait.

Had he really just said "I love you"? To Ladybug? Out loud?

She was staring at him, her face bright red even in the darkness. Oh no. He hadn't meant to say it, it just slipped out, he didn't mean to embarrass her like that, he just wanted to go home...

Ladybug still didn't say anything. The two of them stared at each other, neither one knowing what to do. Their faces were only about an inch apart. How had that happened? Adrien could feel her breath on his face. Wait, they were closer than an inch now. Maybe half an inch? He couldn't even tell anymore. Everything looked blurry. He closed his eyes.

For a few seconds, he felt something warm on his lips. Then he heard her silky voice whispering, "I love you too, Adrien." By the time he opened his eyes again, she was gone.

 

Several weeks later Jalil got back to work experience at the museum. He indeed managed to find Rania's diaries, but there were several volumes full of them. It would take a while for him to find the exact part which they needed.

Meanwhile Alix had been wondering why her friend Adrien hadn't been talking to her very much recently. It was almost like he had been trying to avoid her or something. But why? What had she done wrong? Was she just that bad at making friends with people, that she couldn't keep any friends she did manage to make, and not even know the reason why?

At least there was Kim to hang out with – though that seemed to be more of the opposite problem. He seemed to want to talk to her almost all the time, or at least, it felt like it. They already spent a lot of time together though, didn't he have a life of his own to be living? Well, apparently it was a normal thing when dating someone. She'd just have to get used to it. Yes, even though it had already been several weeks... she still had to keep trying. Maybe.

In her heart she started wondering if maybe she was wrong. She'd never fallen in love with anyone else before, and after all this time it still hadn't happened with Kim. What if she just... never fell in love with anyone? But no, that was stupid, she just had to keep trying. Kim wasn't that bad. Sure it was boring when he was being mushy, but the rest of the time it was like hanging out with a friend, right? She'd probably end up liking the mushy bits soon. At some point. Definitely. After all, people always talked about romance as if it was really fun, so there must be something she was missing out on. At least Kim seemed to be fairly happy.

Oh yes, Kim... what was he droning on about again? It must have been something mushy, since she had completely zoned out.

"...and since you're so tiny, you'd have to stand on a chair to make out, it'd be hilarious... Alix, you're not listening, are you?"

"Huh? Yeah yeah, I'm totally listening..."

Whoops. She just had to put more effort in, that was all. She'd get there eventually. She had to. It was just human nature.

 

Finally one Friday afternoon, Jalil called up Alix just after school had finished to say he had found the relevant part of Rania's diaries, and maybe she should come and take a look.

"Kim wants to come along, is that okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah it's fine. Dad's in a meeting, he won't know a thing."

Alix almost felt a bit disappointed. She was getting a bit tired of Kim hanging out with her every second of the day. Part of her was even considering breaking up with him just to get some space, but she still held a bit of hope that she'd end up liking him soon enough.

They went over to the museum and Jalil showed them into the room where all the family's historical items were kept. There were dusty boxes everywhere.

"Here," Jalil said, holding up a very old looking book. "Have a read of this page."

Alix and Kim took a look at it. The handwriting was so loopy and old-fashioned it was hard to read.

_Dear diary, today was my darling Leila's 15th birthday, so I gave her that pocket watch that papa made for me. She was ever so pleased with it. Oh, I know, the watch was made for me as a special present for being the youngest child, and not receiving anything in the form of inheritance, and perhaps you would think I have rather missed the point by giving it to my elder daughter rather than my younger one. But fear not, I have something special for Anna too when she reaches that age! I have been carving a very special present for her. I thought it would be in better spirits to create a present for her myself, rather than just giving her an old one. After all, that is exactly what my own father did with me, is it not? So on Anna's 15th birthday in a few years I shall give her the special cartridge pen I have been making for her. It is very special and I am sure she will love it._

Underneath this entry was a black-and-white photograph of the pen. It was long and thin with a carving of a watch on the end of it.

"Is it me or does that pen look really, really familiar?" Alix asked.

"Yeah, it does actually," Kim said. "I swear I've seen it somewhere before."

"Well I haven't," Jalil said. "Anyway, now you know that the youngest child rule isn't true. Or at least, it wasn't when Rania was around. She just gave the watch to her oldest child and actually made something for her other one. So maybe dad just made up the rule as an excuse to not give the watch to me." He sounded ever so slightly bitter.

"I'll ask him about it," Alix said.

"But what if he gets annoyed?"

"Don't worry, it's us who should be annoyed at him for making up that rule. If he did, that is. Maybe another ancestor did it. Anyway, I'll find out for you. I want to get to the bottom of this."

"I guess if you're going to ask dad about it today then I'll wait a bit before coming home later... I'll say I have some extra work to do here or something, and you talk to him, then message me when you've talked to him, and..."

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll go wait for him at home then. Come on Kim, let's go."

 

"How much time have we got before your dad gets home?" Kim asked once they were back in the house.

"Like, an hour and a half I guess?" Alix said, opening her pocket watch to check the time. To think that this watch shouldn't even be hers, yet here it was... She had _killed_ people over this watch once. It really was an interesting little thing, wasn't it? There really was so much history behind it. And how much more would there be in another hundred years? It was just fascinating.

Her thoughts were interrupted, once again, by Lê Chiến Kim.

"So if we have a whole hour and a half to kill, we could, I don't know..." He pulled a chair out from under the dining table. "...make out or something?"

Ugh, not again. "I was thinking I might go out rollerskating actually," Alix muttered.

"But apparently there's gonna be a hailstorm later. I checked the weather forecast. I wouldn't want you to get stuck in that."

So she was stuck in the house with Kim for a whole hour and a half. The thought shouldn't have made her annoyed, but it did. And why was he always asking to kiss her so often? It wasn't even that fun. In fact, it got pretty boring after a while. And then he'd wonder why she had stopped in the middle to go on her phone, well it was because she was _bored_. How did people honestly find it fun? What was even the appeal of it? Last time she had to come up with a challenge for herself to stop herself from just walking away and doing something else – get Kim as flustered as possible. It was way too easy, though, all she had to do was whisper something stupid in his ear or fiddle with the strings on his hoodie, and he'd already be unable to speak. How did that even work? It was ridiculous, honestly. But that was how it worked with normal people.

Normal people... She was starting to wonder if maybe she _wasn't_ normal, since she just seemed not to care about all this when everyone else did. But if she wasn't normal then that would mean there was something wrong with her... no, she just had to put more effort in.

"Fine," she said.

 

Kim was just leaving when Alix's dad got back from work.

"Oh, hey Mr Kubdel," he said. "Bye Alix, see you later... you can come over to my house later if you want, by the way... I don't have anything else to do this evening..."

He left the room. Alix immediately said, "Dad, I need to ask you about something."

"Of course," her father replied, "but... why are you standing on a chair?"

"No reason," Alix said hastily, getting down and putting the chair away. "Anyway I was going to say... well... why did you give the watch to me instead of Jalil?"

"I told you, the watch is passed onto the youngest child."

She folded her arms and glared at him. "But is it, though? Is it _really?_ "

"Alright, fine... listen, Jalil is the oldest child so he'll inherit things anyway, won't he? I just wanted something to be able to give to you."

"But the watch is a historical thing, and you know how much Jalil loves stuff like that. He would have loved the watch just as much as I do."

"I know," her father sighed. "I just thought that, well... since the watch has to be passed on down the family through the generations, you would be more likely to actually have children to pass the watch onto, since... well..."

Alix frowned. "Is this because Jalil's gay?"

"Wait, how do you know?"

"How do you think I _don't_ know? He hasn't exactly been hiding it, and he told me when I was like 9. I've known for longer than you have."

"Oh, I didn't realize you knew about it..."

"So you didn't give the watch to Jalil because he's gay so he won't have any kids. And what made you so sure that I wouldn't turn out to be gay too?"

"I just took that chance. And it paid off, didn't it? You have a boyfriend! So at least I'm relieved about that, you can have children to pass the watch onto, and the bloodline will remain unbroken..."

"Dad? Are you disappointed in Jalil?"

"No, of course not!"

She noticed that he had hesitated before he answered. Whatever that meant.

"I'm going to Kim's house," she said. "I'll see you later."

"Alright, well have fun, and don't get back too late! I've got another meeting to go to later so call Jalil to pick you up if you need it. There's going to be a hailstorm later today so don't walk home in that."

"Okay. See you." She quickly left, messaging Jalil as she did so to say that he could go back home now.


	8. Chapter 8

As Alix was walking to Kim's house, she couldn't help feeling confused. She still hadn't fallen in love with Kim, had she? Or anyone else for that matter. And she was 15 now, supposedly in the middle of "horny teenager" age. Why was she like this? Maybe she just wasn't interested in boys... but then again she wasn't a lesbian either...

Well, she'd have to try to be straight. Now that she knew her father was counting on it. Otherwise him giving the watch to her instead of Jalil would be worth nothing. She could tell that despite what he had said, he was at least a little disappointed with Jalil. And yet Jalil was a perfect student and brilliant son, even going into the museum-history field of study...

If being gay was all it took for her father to be disappointed in him enough to not give him the watch, well... what chance did Alix stand? She was already a pretty awful excuse for a daughter. Selfish, moody, reckless, never doing what she was told, never caring about anyone or anything... and yet he had given the watch to her. She hadn't realized that having children to pass the watch down to was such a big deal to him. She hadn't even thought about that yet.

But now that she did, she realized with a jolt... she hated the idea. Growing up to get married and have kids... ugh. No. It felt wrong. It felt _suffocating_. That wasn't the kind of life she wanted. But she had already done nothing to make her family proud. Shouldn't she at least try to do one thing right in her life? The only thing that mattered? But still, it was so much pressure... She felt guilty for some reason, like she was letting her family down. Couldn't she just fall in love with someone and want to have kids like a normal person?

Maybe she wasn't normal though.

Maybe... there was something wrong with her...

No. She pushed the thought out of her head. There was nothing wrong with her, and she'd _prove_ it. Everyone falls in love with someone, and she was no exception.

 

Once she reached Kim's house she told him about the conversation she'd had with her father. "But I don't really want to think about it right now," she said. "Let's just do something else."

"Well, my parents are out for the night," he said. "So we can do whatever you want."

"Great. Let's watch a movie." That was low effort enough, and it would get her mind off things, surely.

"Okay," said Kim. For some reason he was blushing a lot all of a sudden. "I have Netflix... so we could um... we could watch something on that... and like... chill... I guess... yeah... Netflix and chill..."

Netflix and chill? Wasn't that a euphemism for something? Wait, didn't it mean...

Oh.

Ew. _Gross_. She did _not_ want to do that.

But then again, if she was supposed to have kids some day to give the watch to, then wouldn't she have to eventually? And everyone else always wanted to do it, she knew that much. People talked about it all the time. Supposedly it was fun. There must be some appeal to it, as disgusting as it sounded, or otherwise the human race would have just died out, right? She'd have to do it at some point.

And... if there really was something wrong with her... would this fix it? She had to at least try. Maybe she'd enjoy it. Maybe she'd turn out to be straight after all, and then she wouldn't have to worry. It would be better to take that chance.

"Alright," she said.

 

But afterwards she stood in the bathroom, throwing up into the toilet bowl. There was no way she was ever, _ever_ doing that in her life ever again. Nope. How anyone could ever do that more than once was just beyond her. How anyone could _want_ to do that was just beyond her.

She flushed the toilet and washed her face. She didn't want to talk to Kim or stay here a second longer – she just wanted to go home and go to sleep.

"You okay Alix?" he asked as she came out of the bathroom.

"I'm fine," she lied. "I'm going home."

"It's hailing out there right now, maybe you should wait for–"

"Bye, Kim." She left without another word.

Sure enough, it was hailing heavily outside. Alix knew she should probably call Jalil to pick her up but she just couldn't bring herself to talk to him right now. She began trudging slowly down the street, not even bothering to put her hood up. It didn't matter anyway, it was just hail.

So... she was broken. That was it, right? Because this hadn't fixed her. All it did was make her feel even more averse to the idea of ever being with anyone. She knew for a fact that she wasn't straight now, and she couldn't make herself turn straight. But if she wasn't gay either, then what was she?

Just a broken, heartless prude. She couldn't live up to anything she was supposed to be. Ever. She was terrible at being a daughter, terrible at being a friend, terrible at being a girlfriend, just... terrible. A failure. She just let everyone down all the time. Maybe she should just curl up and die. It would be better than existing.

Ladybug suddenly jumped down onto the street in front of her, spinning her yoyo above her head to block the hailstones. "Alix? What are you doing out here in the hail? You should find shelter!"

"I don't care," Alix muttered.

Ladybug took her by the arm and guided her to the shelter of a nearby doorway. "There, that's a bit better. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I just did something stupid and I regret it and I really hate myself right now."

"Aw, it'll be okay. Here, I'll take you home. Then you can dry off and get some rest." She picked her up, then yoyo-ed away through the hail.

 

Jalil was sitting in the living room when Alix walked in through the door, drenched and shivering.

"Whoa Alix, are you okay? I could have picked you up, you know! You didn't have to walk back through the hailstorm!"

"I know, I'm... I'm sorry..." She couldn't help it – she started crying. Jalil ran over and hugged her.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright... what happened?"

"I don't wanna talk about it..."

"Did Kim break up with you or something?"

"No, no, nothing like that, he did nothing wrong, I just... it's something else... but please, I really just don't wanna talk about it so let it go okay..."

"Of course, don't worry. Wait here – I'll go get a warm towel and I'll make you some soup..."

"I know why dad didn't give you the watch."

"What? Why?"

"Because you're gay. So you won't have any kids to pass the watch onto. And..." She buried her head in her hands. "... I don't think I ever will either... and dad's gonna be so disappointed..."

"Shhh, don't worry about that. It'll be fine, okay? Just sit down and have a rest."

Alix curled up on the sofa while her brother went to go get her a towel. She was glad Jalil was there for her, at least. He was certainly one friend she could always count on. He was almost like a mother in a way, always taking care of her, always ready with kind words to make her feel a little bit better.

She didn't feel any less broken, though.


	9. Chapter 9

Alix barely left her room the next day. She just didn't feel like doing anything. Her phone kept going off with messages and calls from Kim but she ignored it. The idea of talking to him was making her feel like she was going to be sick again. She just didn't want to think about anything at all.

Finally on Sunday she got a phone call from Max. She may as well answer this one.

"Alix, why are you ignoring Kim?" he asked straightaway, not even bothering to say hello.

"Oh, I'm not... I'm just... busy..."

"You could have at least sent him a message or something!"

"I was _really_ busy."

"Mhm." He sounded sceptical. "Anyway, will you just go and talk to him today? He's worried about you."

"Tell him I'm fine."

"No, I'm not being your messenger for you, you can do it yourself. He's gone out for a run right now – by my calculations, if you begin skating towards the Pont des Arts within the next five minutes then you should meet him there. And I think you owe him a bit of communication. A relationship is a two way street, you know."

Even nerdy, geeky Max was better at this stuff than her. And he certainly seemed to care about Kim a heck of a lot. Was she really just being selfish? Not trying hard enough? She was tired, though... she really had tried so hard, and it just didn't work...

"Okay, I'll go talk to him," she said.

"That's better. Have a good time." He hung up.

Well, she really had to do it now. She may as well get this over with. She put on her helmet and her skates and then set off.

 

She reached the bridge full of padlocks just about at the same time as Kim.

"Alix, there you are!" he said. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, not looking at him. "I was just busy."

"Okay, because you left really fast on Friday and then you weren't answering my messages so I didn't know what was up..."

"I'm allowed to be busy for a day, aren't I?"

"Yeah, of course..." Kim looked around. "This bridge holds pretty bad memories for me, haha. I got akumatized here, you know."

"Well at least you didn't kill people when you were akumatized."

"Alix... are you in a bad mood?"

Whoops – she had been a bit snappier than she had intended. "I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind," she muttered.

"Let me guess, it's to do with your watch?"

"Yeah. Kind of."

"Oh. Okay." He was shuffling nervously on his feet. "Actually, there was something I think I should talk to you about. Something kinda important."

"What is it?"

"It's just that... no offence, but... you always seem bored. Like, all the time when you're with me. As if you'd rather be doing something else. And I do like you a lot, but it just seems like you're not really into me, and you're only still with me because you feel sorry for me or something... So I just wanna say it's okay if you just wanna be friends or something, I'd be okay with that too. If it makes you happier. Because it seems like you're not that happy right now."

So he had noticed. Was she really that obvious about it? Did it hurt his feelings?

"No, of course I like you," she lied. Admitting the truth would just remind her of all the ways she couldn't be what she was supposed to be.

"You know... you're a terrible liar. You can tell me if you don't like me. I won't get akumatized, I swear, you're not like Chloé."

"Okay, fine," she admitted, "I'm not into you and I never was. I mean, you can be pretty cool sometimes, but not like that."

"I knew it! So then... why did you say yes when I asked you out?"

"I thought I might end up liking you eventually. But then..." She took a deep breath. "...I kind of realized that... I'm not exactly... _straight_. I don't know what I am, but I'm just... I don't know. And I thought maybe dating you would fix it. But it didn't. But I really did try, I promise I did... And especially when I found out how important it is to my dad that I eventually have kids to pass the watch onto, and that was why he didn't give the watch to Jalil, there's not really any other option for me... I'm just... I'm so _confused_ , Kim! I don't know what to do!"

Her eyes were filling up with tears but she tried to blink them away. She did not want to start crying right now, because it felt like if she started then she just wouldn't stop. To her surprise, Kim bent down and wrapped her in a big hug.

"It's okay," he said. "Whatever you are, I'll support you no matter what. To tell the truth I actually get the whole not being straight thing... I haven't really told anyone except Max, but uh... I'm actually bisexual. So yeah. That."

Kim was into guys too? She really hadn't seen that coming. He never acted like it. Did he try to hide it? The same way Alix had been trying so hard to hide the fact that she wasn't normal? In that case it was no wonder Kim was being so oddly nice to her. Maybe he understood.

"We can still be friends, right?" Alix asked him.

"Yeah, of course we can. You can feel free to talk to me or hang out with me any time, okay?"

"Thanks. You're awesome." She really meant it this time. Hugging him a little tighter, she hoped that this new friend of hers wouldn't ever stop talking to her, at least. Like Adrien had done. Hopefully things would turn out different this time.

 

At some point during the following weeks, Adrien was called to have a serious conversation with his father.

"Your 16th birthday is only a few months away," Gabriel said. "You have a decision to make by that time. As you know, family tradition dictates that sons must be betrothed by the time they turn 16, and we have allowed you to have free reign over who you choose – within certain guidelines, of course. The suitor must be from a wealthy, respectable family who agrees to the match. The default choice has always been Chloé Bourgeois, of course."

Adrien knew all this already, he just tried not to think about it too often. 16 was too young for him to be deciding who he wanted to marry. It was completely unfair. Why couldn't his family have cool traditions instead, like passing down family heirlooms?

"However," Gabriel continued, "in order to make preparations for the engagement ceremony, I will need you to make your final choice a little sooner than your birthday. It would be wise to have come to a final decision by the end of the school year."

What? No, that was too soon. He had expected to have longer than that. Why was he only told about this now?

"Father, I don't want to have to marry Chloé, just please give me a little more time," he pleaded.

"I'm sorry Adrien, there is nothing I can do. And this is what your mother would have wanted."

Of course. If his _mother_ wanted it, there was nothing he could do about it. He had to honour her memory. But he had to find someone other than Chloé! Who else did he know who was rich?

Well, there was Lila Rossi, but she travelled around a lot, she'd probably leave soon, and anyway she refused to talk to him after the Volpina incident... Aurore Beauréal was apparently fairly rich too, but he barely knew her at all, and she seemed to be just as snobby as Chloé sometimes... Jean Duparc was very wealthy indeed, but Adrien wasn't sure what his father would say if he suggested marrying a _boy_... If he knew who Ladybug really was and she turned out to be rich, that would be the most perfect thing in the universe, but there was no way she was going to tell him her secret identity, so that idea was out of the window too...

What about Alix? Apparently she was single again now. Adrien hadn't spoken to her in a while, but he still felt his heart skip a few beats when he thought about her. Avoiding her all the time hadn't really done anything to help get rid of that, no matter how much he tried. So... what if he just stopped trying?

"Father, I have another suggestion," he said. "What if I choose Alix Kubdel?"

"I don't see why not. As long as she and her family agree, of course."

Right. He would have to ask her. That would be awkward... he couldn't just suddenly ask her to marry him, could he? Ugh, he didn't know how he was going to do this... what a mess. For what felt like the millionth time in his life, he wished he was just a normal kid – no rich family name to uphold, no strict rules to follow. It would make his life so much easier.


	10. Chapter 10

It turned out that Kim really was bisexual. At some point he and Max had ended up a couple, and no one else was quite sure how it had happened. At least Kim didn't bother to hide it anymore. He showed off his new boyfriend every second of the day to everyone who would listen – and even to everyone who wouldn't listen. It was sweet, if in a kind of sickening way.

This left Alix feeling alone again. Of course Kim and Max still hung out with her, but she couldn't help feeling like a third wheel. And seeing them together, so much happier than she had ever been... it reminded her too much of everything she wanted to forget. She slowly distanced herself from them. Maybe it was just better for her to be alone forever after all. No one would want to hang out with someone as heartless and broken as her anyway. She might as well try and live with it.

Jalil had sneaked Rania's diaries home over the past few weeks, volume by volume, and at least beginning to read through those was some consolation for Alix. Rania seemed to have been very much like her – too fiery, too impulsive, always getting into trouble, always on the go. It was almost like reading about a century old version of herself.

But then again, Rania had been normal. She'd got married and had kids, Alix knew that much. At least Rania had been able to do what she was supposed to, despite everything else that she was. The thought left Alix feeling more miserable than ever.

 

One weekend she got a phone call from the last person she was expecting – Adrien.

"Alix, can I meet up with you today?" he asked. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Of course!"

"Should I meet you at the Dupain-Cheng bakery in an hour then?"

"Yeah, sure."

He sounded flustered about something. Well, never mind. At least he was finally talking to her again. She could feel her spirits lifting. Finally, her old friend was back. Maybe this time he wouldn't suddenly stop speaking to her again.

She met up with him in front of the bakery.

"Can we go in and get some croissants first?" Adrien asked. "I'm hungry."

"Yeah, let's go."

As soon as they walked in, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who had been standing at the counter, dropped all the boxes she was holding. Adrien quickly ran forwards to help her pick them up.

"Oh - Adrien! It's okay, y-you don't need to!" Marinette stammered, her face going red. "I've got this..." She dropped the boxes she had just picked up, then reached down to pick them up again.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked her.

"Yes, yes, I'm f-fine..." She beamed at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to buy some croissants."

"Oh yes, of course! L-let me get them for you..."

It took longer than it should have, since she tripped over twice and kept dropping things. Finally she handed him a box full of croissants.

"Thanks, Marinette."

"N-no problem!" She tried to lean against the counter but misjudged, and ended up falling to the floor. She quickly stood up again. "Enjoy your day!"

"You too!"

Adrien took the box of croissants and went with Alix to sit on a bench in the nearby park. It was a surprisingly cold day today and there weren't many people about. Good. Adrien didn't really want anyone overhearing.

"Is it me or is Marinette really weird around you?" Alix asked, taking a croissant without asking.

"Is she?" Adrien asked. "I thought it was a bit strange too... She seems to treat me differently from how she treats other people and I don't know why."

"Hey, you could always get _Chat Noir_ to ask her about that, couldn't you?"

"Hmm, that is a good idea..." But that wasn't what he was here to talk about. It was best to just get it over with. He cleared his throat. "Alix, I need to ask you something. It's, um, kind of weird. And kind of awkward. But let me explain... my family has a family tradition too. But it's nowhere near as cool as yours. It's kind of stressful, in fact. Basically, sons have to be betrothed to someone by their 16th birthday."

"Ugh, poor you," Alix said. "I would hate that so much. 16 is way too young." And, of course, she never wanted to marry someone anyway... but that was beside the point.

"Exactly! But I have to do it. My father says I have to choose someone from a rich family. If I don't choose someone by the end of the school year, the default choice will be Chloé."

"And let me guess, you don't want to marry her."

"Right. I just don't think I could spend my life with someone like her, even if she can be an alright friend sometimes. So what I was going to ask you is, well... um... how can I say this..."

"You want me to help you find a cute rich girlfriend within the next few weeks?" she asked him, her mouth stuffed full of croissant. "I'm not good with people, but I can always try."

"Actually, um..." Adrien ran a hand through his hair nervously. The way she was looking at him... it made his brain feel like it was on fire. He took a deep breath and went on. "The truth is, I... I like you. A lot. I have for a while. I think ever since I tracked down your watch as Chat Noir, and you were crying in my arms... And, um, your family is very well-off and respectable. My father says it's fine. So I was wondering if... I could choose you instead?"

It took a whole 10 seconds for it to sink in. "Are you... asking me... to _marry you?_ "

"Well... yes."

No. _No_.

Her friend had finally decided to speak to her again after all this time, and it was about... this? This couldn't be happening. There was no way. He had to be tricking her.

"You're kidding, right?"

"I'm not. I promise."

He was looking at her earnestly. Was he really serious? He refused to talk to her for well over a month, and then suddenly thought it was okay to show up and ask to marry her out of the blue? She wanted to slap him. How could he _do_ this?

But... it wasn't his fault. He was just stuck in his rich, controlling family, being pressured into doing the right thing. Wasn't it the exact same thing as what was happening with her? She had to marry someone eventually to pass the watch on, and he had to marry someone quickly to uphold his family tradition. If she said yes to him, it would quickly solve both their problems. Both their families would be proud. It would fix everything.

Saying yes just to make her family proud... would it be worth it? She knew she was already a disappointment to her father, and if he knew the truth about her then there would be no way she could make it up to him. At least if she married Adrien, he would never find out that there was something wrong with her. She would finally be able to live up to expectations for once.

She was about to say yes... but stopped. She just couldn't get the words out. Marrying Adrien... no. She just _couldn't_. She didn't love him like that, she never loved _anyone_ like that. It made her feel sick. Having to spend the rest of her life with someone like that... god, no, that sounded too much to bear. It made her want to kill herself. She just _couldn't_ say yes to him! There was no way.

"You don't have to decide straightaway," Adrien said, "I still have a few more weeks..."

Was she being selfish? If she said no, she would be saving herself but dooming Adrien to an unhappy life with Chloé. If she said yes then Adrien would be happy, but she would hate it so much she wanted to _die_. Surely, _surely_ that was a good enough reason to say no? But was it? She felt like she was going to throw up again. Just the idea of having to marry someone and live like that for the rest of her life, it made her stomach heave.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Adrien, I'm sorry, I just... I _can't_ marry you, okay? I can't. I just wanted to be your friend. I don't like you like that, and I know I never will. I'm sorry, I just..."

She stood up and ran off as quick as she could, ignoring him calling after her. She didn't stop running until she reached her room back at home, where she locked herself and sat at the foot of her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She heard Jalil knocking on the door asking if she was okay but she ignored him too. She just wanted to be alone.

 _Guilt_. That was what she was feeling. She was feeling _guilty_. Guilty that she couldn't save Adrien, because there was just fundamentally something too wrong with her. Guilty that she could never make her family proud, no matter how hard she tried. Guilty that she couldn't even keep any friends she made. She could never be good enough.

She had no idea how long she sat there for, clawing at the skin on her arms with her fingernails until it bled. Anything to stop her thoughts from overwhelming her. She wished she could just disappear forever. That would be what she deserved.


	11. Chapter 11

There was only a week and a half to go before Adrien needed to make his final decision. He didn't want to think about it at all. It had already caused him enough trouble.

Even though his patrol with Ladybug wasn't until later that evening, he transformed into Chat Noir and headed out early. Maybe he would go see Marinette now, and try to find out why she acted so strange around Adrien all the time. He may as well do something to get his mind off other things.

He jumped onto her balcony and knocked on the trapdoor. A few seconds later her head popped out. She looked up at him, frowning.

"Chat Noir? What are you doing here? Is there an akuma after me or something?"

"No, no, nothing like that, princess," he said, grinning. "I just wanted to talk to you about something. Would you like to come out here?"

"Okay..." She climbed up and out onto the balcony.

"Someone's asked me to ask you something," Chat Noir said. "You know Adrien Agreste, right? I believe he's a classmate of yours. He told me that he's worried because you treat him so differently from the way you treat everyone else, and he's wondering if he did something wrong, or if you're still annoyed at him for a certain gum incident, or..."

"Oh, it's nothing like that!" Marinette blushed. "I forgave him for the gum thing a long time ago. It's actually because... well, this is kind of stupid, but... I have a massive crush on him. I get really flustered around him. That's why I just can't talk to him!"

"Really? This whole time you had a _crush_ on him?"

"Yeah! Though please don't tell him..."

His brain didn't seem to be functioning suddenly. Marinette... had a crush... on him? How had he missed that?

"Maybe you should ask him out," he said quietly.

"I'm trying, don't worry."

Was she? Was that why Alya was always pushing her over to talk to him at school? Was it why she always tried to sit next to him on trips out? Everything was beginning to make sense. It made his head spin.

"That's good, that's good... Anyway I need to go now, Ladybug will be waiting for me soon... take care, Marinette..."

"Bye Chat!"

He left quickly.

Marinette... that spunky, energetic ray of sunshine from his class... she had been in love with him the whole time. He wasn't even sure how to react to that. He hadn't considered that it was possible. To him, Marinette had always been way out of his league. She was too cool for him, too morally superior. After all, there had been that gum thing so long ago, and he wasn't sure if giving her his umbrella had managed to heal the rift between them, though he really had been trying... And she was so talented at so many things, and such a hard worker, and so confident around the rest of the class, always standing up to Chloé and doing what was right...

Of course he knew she was perfect. That was the problem – she was _too_ perfect. He hadn't even allowed himself to consider her as a possibility, since he didn't believe that someone as great as her could ever love someone like him. But she did. And now that he knew that, it was like the floodgates had opened. He just couldn't get Marinette Dupain-Cheng out of his head all of a sudden.

Her face, her voice, her cute laugh... she was so perfect it was almost unreal. She was far too good for him. But now, did he really have a chance? Dare he even entertain that possibility?

No, he daren't. Marinette's family wasn't wealthy. He wouldn't be allowed to choose her. It would be better if he just tried to forget about it.

"Chaton, there you are!"

He turned to see Ladybug leaping towards him over the rooftops. She landed in front of him elegantly.

"What's up?" she asked cheerfully.

"A lot," he admitted. "I just found out that this girl I know has a crush on my civilian self and I think I'm falling for her but I don't know if it would even work out so... Anyway, what's up with you?"

He suddenly noticed the colour draining from her face.

"My lady, are you alright? What happened?"

She stepped forwards and grabbed his shoulders, looking into his eyes with such intensity he thought he would melt. "This girl who likes you, is it Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

"...Yeah, but... how do you know..."

She stepped back suddenly, both hands over her mouth.

"Ladybug, what's wrong?"

Her eyes were open wider than he had ever seen them. "Is it really you?" she whispered. "Adrien Agreste?"

Now it was his turn to be shocked. "...I ... well... yes but... how did you..." His mind worked furiously, trying to figure out how she knew that. All of a sudden, it dawned on him.

Surely it couldn't be... no... but there was no other explanation.

" _Marinette?_ "

They stood staring at each other, neither one moving for several long seconds.

Chat Noir was Adrien.

Ladybug was Marinette.

Finally, he moved. His face broke into a big smile. "Oh, Marinette... I'm so relieved... out of everyone it could be, it's _you_..." He detransformed, leaving Ladybug staring at his civilian self Adrien instead.

She still didn't move for several seconds. Then, very softly, she said, "Tikki, detransform me." Her costume vanished and left Marinette standing there, still staring in shock.

The next second, she jumped forwards and embraced him tightly. "Oh Adrien, it's _you_..."

"Yeah, it's me... what are the odds of that?"

"It's crazy..."

While those two were still hugging it out, Tikki and Plagg flew out of their pockets and had a reunion of their own. It had been years since they'd last seen each other, and it was about time they had a good catch up.

"How long did you think it would take them to figure it out?" Tikki asked.

"Not as long as this," Plagg muttered. He took a look at them, then stuck out his tongue. "Bleh. Now they're going to be a couple, aren't they?"

"I'm just glad they're happy..."

 

Adrien did not go to sleep when he got home that night. He went straight to see his father.

"Father, I need to ask you something important," he said once he had been let into the office.

"Adrien, it's very late and you should be asleep–"

" _Please?_ It's to do with the decision."

Gabriel sighed. "Very well. What is it?"

"Can I choose Marinette Dupain-Cheng? I know she isn't rich, but please consider it, please..."

"Oh yes, of course," Gabriel said. "I would willingly make an exception for her. She is an excellent fashion designer, you know, she has a lot of talent. I would be proud to have someone like her as part of the family and to help run my company."

Adrien could hardly believe his ears. It sounded too good to be true.

"Oh thank you father, thank you so much!"

As soon as he was excused, he ran into his bedroom and screamed into his pillow. Finally, _finally_ , he'd had a good day. First of all Marinette loved him, then it turned out that she was Ladybug all along, and now he actually had a real chance to be with her. Of course he still had to ask her about it, but just the small glimmer of hope was enough to make his heart feel like it was going to burst.

The next few days seemed to pass in whirl. It felt completely unreal, like a fairytale. He went and talked to Marinette, getting down on one knee and proposing to her, and she accepted, and her family accepted, and the preparations for their engagement party began, even though the actual wedding wouldn't be for many years yet considering how young they were...

"I'm so happy for you," Chloé told Adrien at school, while he was giving out invitations to everyone in the class.

"Really?" Adrien asked. He knew Chloé had wanted to marry him and that she didn't like Marinette. Could she really be pleased about this? Or was she just lying?

"Yes, really. Of course I would have been very happy to marry you, since you're my friend, and you're very rich too. But you know what? I'm just glad you get to be happy."

"Oh, huh... thanks Chloé! That's really nice of you!"

"Aaaaaand I also recently realized I'm a lesbian. So I think I'll marry a rich lady instead, thank you very much." She winked at him, then went to sit down at her seat.

Wait, Chloé was a lesbian? How had he never noticed? Well, at least he didn't have to worry about her now. She would find happiness for herself with someone else. He carried on giving invitations to the rest of the class...

Oh. It was Alix next.

He hadn't spoken to her at all since that day in the park. Now that he was head-over-heels for Marinette he didn't have any space in his heart to feel for Alix anything more than friendship... if she still considered him her friend, that was. He awkwardly handed her an invitation.

"I thought you said you had to marry someone rich," was her first reaction.

"My father made an exception for Marinette since she's a fashion designer, like him."

Alix suddenly grinned. "Dude, I am super relieved right now... You and Marinette are gonna be an awesome couple."

"Oh, thanks."

Phew, she wasn't annoyed at him or anything. That was good. He moved on to give out more invitations.

Alix looked at the invitation in her hand. She really was relieved that Adrien had found someone to marry that wasn't Chloé. It took the pressure and guilt off a little bit, at least. But she wasn't sure if he would still be her friend now. He was already in the habit of just not talking to her, so was there ever a chance they could be friends again? She wanted to, but she didn't bother getting her hopes up. Adrien had plenty of other friends he could talk to. She was used to feeling lonely anyway.


	12. Chapter 12

Finally, the day of the engagement party arrived – Adrien's birthday. Nino was glad that his best friend was finally getting the birthday party he deserved. Practically the entire school had been invited, and the Agreste mansion wasn't even big enough to hold everyone, so it had to be held in another estate instead. The formal part of the ceremony was over, and now everyone was celebrating.

"I'm going to put on a slow song for the happy couple to dance to," the DJ said. (Gabriel hadn't allowed Nino to be the DJ unfortunately and had hired someone else, though Nino vowed to do it at the actual wedding in a few years).

A slow song started playing, and Marinette and Adrien took to the dance floor, holding each other close. Once that first song was over, many other couples began joining them. There was Alya and Nino, Juleka and Rose, Ivan and Mylène, Kim and Max, countless others... The whole dance floor was soon full of couples. Almost everyone in attendance had a special someone to share their dance with.

"Today is the day we celebrate romance, one of the most precious feelings in the universe," the DJ said. "What kind of life would be worth living without someone special to share it with? This is why we celebrate today the coming together of Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste, who have finally begun on the path of life's greatest adventure together. We wish you all the best, you two!"

There was a great deal of applause and cheering. Someone started popping confetti out, and it started a chain reaction of everyone doing it. The room was soon filled with confetti, glitter and couples. The whole thing was beautiful.

At least, it was beautiful if you were normal. Like Marinette and Adrien.

Alix tried to feel happy. No, she _was_ happy, she was glad that Marinette and Adrien had got together at last. She knew most of the class had been wanting that to happen for a long time. At least for the two of them, their lives were probably going to go perfect now. They didn't have anything to worry about anymore. They were normal.

And so was everyone else here, it seemed. She was one of the very few people who weren't out on the dance floor draped all over their significant other. The only others who stood on the sides watching were the few very young kids in attendance, and Nathaniel Kurtzberg - though he was so shy you wouldn't have been able to force him to dance at gunpoint.

Alix tried very hard not to think about it. Especially not how much events like this made her feel the pressure of expectations she would never be able to live up to. Or how she was never going to be as happy as anyone here, since she was too heartless to even be a proper human.

The reckless side of her was telling her to just break her watch on purpose. Then she wouldn't have to worry about it. But that wouldn't solve the problem, would it? That wouldn't make her normal. Nothing would. She knew that now. And anyway, that watch was far too precious to her. She'd just end up akumatized over it again, probably.

What else could she do? If she had to stay and watch all these lovey-dovey couples for any longer she was going to _scream_.

Well, there was only one thing for it. She strode up to the bar and said to the bartender, "Give me an entire bottle of the strongest stuff you have."

The bartender frowned at her. "Uh, how old are you, miss?"

"25," she lied. She knew he wouldn't believe it. She looked like a 12 year old.

"Can I see identification?"

She took a giant wad of banknotes out of her pocket and thrust them down on the table. "Just give me something. Right now, before I do something stupid."

The bartender looked around, then slowly took the money and pulled out a big bottle of clear liquid and handed it to her. "I would suggest diluting it with water though because it's very strong–"

"Don't tell me what to do." She hopped off the bar stool and started walking towards the door with the bottle in hand.

"Uh, Alix?" came a voice from behind her. "I don't think you should drink that..."

She turned around to see Nathaniel there, looking at her timidly. "I don't give a crap," she snapped, then shoved the door open and went outside.

It was cold and quiet out here, though the full moon meant it wasn't too dark. No one else was out here. Good, that meant no one would bother her.

She took off the lid and took a sip – then immediately spat it out. Ugh, it was _disgusting_. Like bleach mixed with rotted grape juice. Who even drank this stuff? Only idiots like her, of course. She took a big swig of it and forced herself to swallow it, but the stuff burned her throat so much she started coughing. Seriously, why couldn't she drink it? She just wanted to forget about everything for a while, couldn't she even do that much properly? Well apparently not!

Without thinking she smashed the bottle on the ground. It shattered, throwing liquid and bits of glass everywhere, going all over the dress that she had been guilt-tripped into wearing today. No, would that stain go away? Her dad was going to kill her... Why had she even done that? She was just so angry – well, maybe not angry, more like... she didn't even know what she was feeling.

She sat down on the spot, not caring anymore that her dress was soaked and the glass was cutting into her knees. Who cared anyway? Maybe the cuts would get infected, and she'd die, and then she wouldn't have to care about anything ever again.

"Alix? Are you okay? What happened here?" It was Nathaniel again.

"What do you want?!"

"I just want to know what's wrong." He came and sat down beside her. "Whatever it is, I won't judge, I promise."

She had never spoken to Nathaniel very much before. No one had, really. He always kept himself to himself, even more than she did. And even when she did talk to him, he always seemed distracted, like he was busy daydreaming. Maybe she should just tell him what was wrong. It would be good to get it off her chest for once. It wasn't like he was going to tell anyone else.

"Fine," she said. "The truth is, I'm unhappy because... there's something wrong with me. I know there is. I just... I can never do anything right! I can't be normal like I'm supposed to, and I've tried not caring, but I keep letting everyone down and I can't even help it... I'm supposed to be a good daughter but I know my dad hates that I'm not some Rose-type airy fairy princess and I just never fit in, and I never do what I'm told or anything... Maybe I'm just being selfish? But I've tried to change, and I just can't! It doesn't work! I just can't be who I'm supposed to, and... I'm supposed to pass my family watch heirloom onto my kids to keep it in the bloodline, and it's a big deal to my dad, but... I just... I _can't_... because..."

She couldn't help but start crying. "I'm broken! I'm completely heartless and I don't know why! Everyone around me always seems to be in love with someone all the time and they make it sound so nice and happy and I don't know what I'm even missing out on because I've never felt that way about _anyone!_ I just _don't_ fall in love with people, I really have tried it, but I just _can't!_ I don't even know why! And I'm not even good at making friends either... every time I make a new friendship it always gets ruined somehow and I don't want to be lonely but I don't know what to do..."

She tried to wipe the tears away from her eyes, but they just wouldn't stop. "Something is very, very wrong with me, Nath, and I've tried so hard to fix it. I've done things I never wanted to do, things that made me sick, things that made me want to kill myself... but nothing has fixed it... I'm 15 and my hormones should be all over the place but other than stupid mood swings I just don't get it, it feels like I can't relate to anyone or anything... no movies, songs on the radio, events like these, everyone talking about love all the time and how great it is and I don't understand it... I just can't do _anything_ right! I'm a failure, and don't try to tell me I'm not!"

She just put her head in her hands and started sobbing.

"Alix... maybe you're just aromantic."

She lifted her head up and looked at him. "...Aromantic?"

"Aro for short. It means you don't feel romantic attraction."

"Wait... there's a word for that?"

He nodded. "You can look it up. It's not bad or anything, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. It's just different and uncommon, that's all."

She hardly dared to get her hopes up. "Are you serious? This is a real thing?"

"Yes, I promise. There's a pride flag for it and everything – look." He took his phone out of his pocket and quickly looked it up on the internet. Sure enough, there were several articles on it and a flag with several stripes. "You're not broken. It's okay."

Aromantic... this whole time, there had been a word to describe how she was feeling. All along, that was what she was. Aro.

"Are you aromantic too?" she asked him.

"No, I've had too many crushes to count... But I am asexual, though."

"Asexual? Like the biology thing?"

"I mean the other definition, the orientation one. It means I don't get sexually attracted to people. It, er, sounds kind of gross to me. Not that it's a bad thing if people do it or whatever, just personally, I..."

"So there's a word for that too?" It seemed too good to be true.

"Yep. Ace for short."

"Huh, you're a walking LGBT dictionary, aren't you?"

He smiled nervously. "I just spend a lot of time on the internet..."

"So I'm ace too. Aro ace. And this whole time I thought there was something actually biologically wrong with me..."

"There's nothing wrong with being aro ace, if that's what you are. Seriously, not wanting romance or sex is _fine_ , you're not broken or anything, I swear. You're just different. And there _are_ other people out there like you. Maybe not very many compared to everyone else, but they're there."

Alix frowned suddenly. "But... can you still be ace if you've... you know... I mean, I only did it once, and it was gross, and..."

"It doesn't matter what you do. What matters is how you feel. If you feel like you're ace then you're ace."

"Oh, okay." She smiled. "Aro ace... so that's what I am... that's what I was this whole time... Gee Nath, you're a _lifesaver_. Seriously, thank you so much." She leaned across and gave him a sudden hug, surprising him.

"No problem," he mumbled. "Actually, being ace was something it took a while for me to come to terms with myself, so I know how that feels... And I get the whole not being able to make friends thing too. You probably noticed actually... I don't have any friends, I never have..."

"Well you've just made one new friend, and she's wondering why she never tried to make friends with you before."

"Oh really? Thanks!" He smiled a rare, joyful smile that showed his teeth for once. She wasn't sure she had ever seen him do that before. He suddenly pulled a bowl full of cake from the other side of him – she hadn't noticed it earlier. "I brought you some of the engagement cake, by the way, do you want it? Cake is considered the stereotypical ace food. Like an inside joke."

"In that case I will definitely have some of that, thanks," she said, taking the bowl off him. The cake really did taste very good. It was from the Dupain-Cheng bakery, of course, and everything from there tasted great.

"I feel like drawing," Nathaniel said, looking up at the moon. "I know I draw all the time, but..."

"It's fine, just go ahead!"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little sketchpad and a pen, then started doodling.

Wait.

That pen... why did it look so familiar? It was long and thin, and had a carving of a watch on the end of it...

No way. Surely that couldn't be _the_ pen? The one that she had seen an old photo of in Rania's diary... The pen that Rania gave to her younger daughter Anna on her 15th birthday?

"Nath, where did you get that pen from?"

"What this?" He stopped drawing. "It was a birthday present from my dad. It's an antique – I think my granddad used to own it too and it somehow still works fine."

"Oh my god..."

"What?"

"Do you happen to know if you have an ancestor called Anna?"

He frowned. "I know I went to my great-grandma Anna's funeral a few years ago... She was over a hundred years old..."

Alix couldn't believe it. She had just found the other descendant of Rania's - the one who had the pen. And it was none other than her own classmate. What were the odds of that?

She grinned and took her watch out of her pocket. "Nathaniel, I have something very weird but very cool to explain to you..."


	13. Chapter 13

"So, you're aro ace," Adrien said. "I'm really happy that you know now." He, Plagg and Alix were stood on the roof of Alix's house again, in the middle of the night. Somehow or another they had managed to repair their friendship. It felt good.

"You're not the only aro ace one around," Plagg muttered in between bites of Camembert.

"Yes Plagg, we all can tell you're aro ace too."

"Of course I am, but I wasn't talking about _me_. I was talking about _Rania_. Obviously the term "aro ace" didn't even exist back then, but I can assure you with 100% certainty that she was definitely it."

"I guessed," Alix said. "I finally got round to reading the rest of her diaries, and uh... it's really obvious."

"But didn't she get married and have children?" Adrien asked.

"She married her friend because she was expected to, but she refused to let it go anything beyond friendship. And then when there was pressure on her to have kids she just adopted Leila and Anna. Which actually means that I'm not even biologically descended from Rania in the first place and my dad's point about the watch having to stay in the bloodline is completely null, he could totally have given the watch to Jalil. But anyway, I don't care what my dad says, in the future I'll give the watch to someone else's cool kid on their 15th birthday since I won't have any of my own. Hey Adrien, if you and Marinette ever have kids, could I give it to one of them?"

Adrien laughed. "Sure! Speaking of Marinette, I'm wondering if I should change my surname to Dupain-Cheng when I marry her, since she doesn't want to change her surname... She's so sweet, you know? I wish I had spent more time with her before... She's always so smart and talented and amazing and confident, and now that she can actually speak to me without stuttering it's so nice... And the other day we went out for dinner and then afterwards we went up onto her balcony at sunset, and it was so _romantic_ , and we kissed so passionately, and I could smell the flowery shampoo she uses in her hair, and her lips were so warm, and so were her intimate hands on my..."

Bleh. Did Adrien really have to go into all that detail? Alix grabbed a piece of Camembert and took a bite out of it. Grinning, she muttered, "I'm too aro ace for this."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I blitzed through writing this whole thing in about 3 days! I just really wanted to write a Miracul-ace story, hehe, and I've headcanoned Alix as aro ace since I first started watching the show to the point where I've had like three different dreams about it (and this story's pretty much just the dreams smushed together into a semi-coherent plot...). I also drew from my own experiences about when I was 15 and realized I was ace myself. Anyway, please leave a comment letting me know what you think! :D


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